Burning Down Heaven
by BreeSkellington
Summary: First, they moved on. Then, the SSS find themselves alive- left with a second chance and a quirky guardian. Together, the teens are determined to live and love life to the fullest. They start by enrolling into a high school and opening a cafe that they playfully dub "Angel Beats" This is the beginning of what will be a beautiful life surrounded by the people they love.


**Author's Note: Angel Beats is not owned by me at all.**

**This is an ongoing second part from the anime that I created.**

**This is not a Supernatural FanFic, and it does not follow the same themes.**

**If you are not bothered by this fact, read on!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter One : Awakening**

* * *

I remember... her. Kanade the Angel in all of her shining brilliance. Golden eyes fitted with silvery white hair and a voice so soft it felt like it snuggled around your body whenever she opened her mouth to speak. She was everything, and I was a simple onlooker as she graced the world with her beauty.

I'm glad that Kanade is the last memory I have of the Afterlife.

We were standing outside of the gym; a place where so many dreams were finally realized and made to come true. Our friends had moved on with such ease, leaving us behind in a tangle of envy, relief, and pain. The sun behind us was hewing a scarlet red and vibrant orange, only adding more to Kanade's appearance.

I walked down the stairs, watching the sun with sad eyes. We had been left behind, with every intention of moving on. But... there was a lingering feeling in my chest.

I turned back to her. "Say Kanade, let me ask you. Would you like to stay here?"

"Huh?" Her voice was so soft it almost disappeared before reaching my ears, but I heard the confusion nonetheless.

"The thought just hit me for some reason. I mean, there's gonna be more people like Yuri and Hinata who come here because they're unhappy with their lives. And many other kids just like them."

"Right."

"They might try to stay here like Yuri and the others did. They might suffer fighting against their lives for all eternity. And they'd have to do it alone. But then... if we stayed, we could teach them how great life was all over again. That life is really worth living. We could help them graduate. It's possible I might've come here to fulfill that purpose."

Her eyes were sad, but I couldn't be dismayed. She'd see my side after I confessed. I mean, after all we'd been through, this was the perfect place for us. The Afterlife could keep on being our home!

"Would you stay with me? I know that as long as you're with me, I won't get lonely. Even here in this world. I might've said this before, but I want to be with you. I want to stay with you forever. Because I..."

She pushed a strand of silver hair behind her ear and started walking towards me.

"...I love you so much, Kanade. I love you." With that, I wrapped my arms around her small shoulders and brought her into my embrace. She seemed still, but relaxed as I held her.

But she didn't say anything. The silence was deafening as we stood beside the glowing sun.

"Why won't you say something?"

"...I don't want to."

I stepped back in surprise. "W-why not?"

"If I tell you how I honestly feel, I think that I might vanish." Her words carried over the wind.

Immediate panic set in at the thought of Kanade moving on. "But why?"

"I came here to tell you... thank you for all that you've done for me. My life was extended because of the beautiful, kind heart you gave me."

Heart? That's impos-... No, it can't be. I shuddered when the revelation hit me. The donation, shortly following my death, was for all of my organs. But, that wasn't...

"Even now your heart is beating here," she said, placing both hands on her chest. "I feel it beating right here in my chest. My only regret is that I was unable to thank the person who gave me my youth. I wanted to express my gratitude. That was my feeling- the lingering feeling that made me wander into this world."

"It can't be." No, then that means. If I let her thank me... she'll disappear. And then all of this will be for nothing. I met her just to lose her! "I mean, how did you know it was me!?"

She walked passed me and closer to the light. "I noticed when I stabbed you for the first time; that you didn't have a heart." When I opened my mouth to protest, she cut me off. "You regained all of your memories when you fell asleep on my chest. You were listening to the rhythm of your own heart beat."

I shook. "No way..." The ache was back in my chest, pounding and causing the deepest agony imaginable. But she continued anyway, as if feeling my pain.

"Yuzuru, please. Tell me- repeat what you just said."

I stepped back. "No, I won't. Kanade, you'll disappear!"

"Yuzuru, please!"

"No I can't! I can't do it."

"Yuzuru!"

I flinched at that tone in her voice, and felt a worse feeling in my gut: guilt. That soft sounding voice that she always soothed me with was desperate and hopeless.

"Please let me believe in everything you believed in. Let me believe that life is worth living."

I was causing her pain by trying to keep her here and I knew that. Which was why...

"Yuzuru..."

I clenched my fists and hugged her tightly. "Kanade, I love you. Let's stay together forever."

"Yes. Thank you, Yuzuru."

My arms tightened. "Let's stay together forever and ever, okay?"

"Okay. Thank you."

"I love you, Kanade." Sobs racked my body, dispelling the grief I felt. She was going to leave, and I had to let her.

Her voice became softer, as if a wind blowing by a window- traveling on past me. "Yes. Thank you so much."

"Kanade! Please don't pass on!"

Her tiny arms tightened in what seemed like a final goodbye. "Truly and deeply... Thank you for giving my life to me."

And like that, she vanished, leaving me gasping and crying her name as I grasped the air she had left in my arms.

I don't know how long I stayed in the Afterlife. Perhaps I was waiting for her to come back to me. Or maybe I was so heart broken that anything complex like vanishing was too much to compute.

But, even so, after some week or two of lingering, I too vanished. Like Kanade, I disappeared from our safe place. I left that small haven behind.

* * *

There was nothing when I opened my eyes. The darkness was deafening and vast, like I was staring out into a black ocean. When I looked down at my body, I found myself... glowing. Like I was an luminescent light, I stuck out through the darkness. And odd feeling of familiarity came over me as I felt almost ethereal.

I stretched out my body, testing my surroundings, and found that I was standing on water. The blackest and murkiest of water was like a platform, and I was standing on top of it like it wasn't going to swallow me. I looked around once again, and still saw nothing but black. Surrounded by nothing, I was literally standing on water like some sort of apparition.

"Where am I?" I asked aloud.

A deep chuckle resounded through the air. "What a silly question. No need to fear, Otonashi-kun." That voice... it was so familiar and kind. It covered me like a mother's voice would to a child, but this one was unmistakeable male. Why wasn't I scared?

God, perhaps? Might as well ask. "Who are you?"

"Oh, me? Haha, you certainly react differently than your friends, Otonashi-kun. They were very aggressive. Except for maybe that girl... the one with the honey eyes and snow-white hair."

"Kanade!?" I yelled, looking around frantically. "Where is she? Have you done something to her?"

Another laugh bubbled out from the endless sky. "Oh no, Otonashi-kun. I would never. But she definitely was an interesting little thing, wasn't she? Now, do you want your answers?"

I almost cursed, but held my tongue. "Of course!"

"Well, seeing as you're an impatient boy, I'll move along. My name is Uriel, and I was once like you, Otonashi-kun."

"...l-like me?"

He chuckled again. "Yes, my boy. I was lost in the Afterlife. You see, I had a very unpleasant life and was sent there. But, back then, it was a pile of unmoving earth and sun."

I gasped and stepped back. "Before the school was..."

"I created the school."

"NO WAY!"

"Oh, yes Otonashi-kun. I know it may sound unbelievable, but I'd like to talk to you about it."

I clenched my teeth. "Tell me where I am."

"Please!" The voice whined like a child, and I felt just a little more at ease. "Let me tell you! You'll like my story, I promise."

A growl bubbled out of my throat and I sighed, looking down at me suspended feet. "As long as you make it quick."

"Haha, yes way. Where were we?"

Rolling my eyes, I sighed. "The school."

"OH YES! I made it with my own two hands. You see, there wasn't anybody else there, and I felt like I needed to prepare for more arrivals. Soon enough, more people began to show up. Suddenly, I was surrounded by those like me- the ones who died horribly or wanted to do something before their time."

He said it so nonchalantly that I didn't even pay much attention for a moment. Perhaps this was a joke or dream of some sort. The way he was speaking about just suddenly dying and ending up in some barren wasteland was completely different from my experience yet exactly the same.

This man was...

I felt myself shake in disbelief. "You... created the Afterlife."

"With my own two hands."

"B-but I don't understand! Why are you here? In this vast emptiness?"

There was a sudden wind that ran through my body. It wasn't aggressive wind, but it was enough for me to pull the sides of my jacket together. Was that... laughter?

"This isn't vast emptiness, Otonashi-kun. This is an interrogation room."

I paled. "Interrogation... room?" Like in the police movies?

"Why yes. You see, I passed on, but loved the people of the Afterlife so much that I was given the opportunity to watch over them. And then I discovered the SSS."

Shinda Sekai Sensen... Yurippe's group. I blushed. "You watched us?"

He chortled. "No need to be embarrassed. In fact, I was so enamored by you and your friends' devotion and dedication to each other that I decided something out of the blue. And I made a deal with... God."

I visibly tensed and stepped back. "GOD?"

"Hmm. He was very understanding and kind. He loved you just as much as I did. And together, we came up with the perfect plan!"

"The interrogation room is a part of that plan?"

"Oh, you're such a smart boy! Otonashi-kun, he wanted us to have a second chance just as much as you all needed one. Do you want a second chance?"

I skipped the question for some of my own. "Wait, wait. You're saying that Yurippe and the others passed through this... interrogation room? Kanade too?"

"Oh yes. And I asked them the same question. I can't tell you how they answered, but I can tell you that you're decision will hinder whether or not you meet with them in your second chance or not."

"Second chance?"

"Mm-Hm! But, keep in mind, you'll be starting over at the time that you died. So, it'll be almost like you disappeared from one end of the earth and ended up on the other. You're still Otonashi-kun, and you still died. And this time you won't start over from inside the womb. You'll just... wake up."

"Wake up where?"

He sighed, and it sounded like he was pouting. This one must really be a drama king. "So impatient. Would you like to hear the terms or not?"

I sighed and leaned back. "Might as well."

"Splendid!" he giggled. "Well, number one would be that you can't start over from scratch. Meaning, you'll wake up in a seventeen year-old body with no name and no identity. You'll look like you, of course, but any record of Yuzuru Otonashi will be erased. Meaning, you'll have to start over from high school and not womb."

"That sounds... why would you do that?"

He giggled again. "Because if you do that, you'll keep all of your memories of the Afterlife. Meaning that you can..."

"...That I can find Kanade." I gasped. "Did she say yes?"

"Otonashi-kun, I can't say."

"So..."

"So there's no guarantee that you'll be reunited. But, do you really want to miss this chance?"

My heart stopped at the thought of losing Kanade forever. But what if she just moved on? What if I wake up as a nobody with no way of finding her? But still... the thought of just letting her slip through my fingers was... "Unacceptable," I said aloud.

"Excellent. Then I take it you figured your answer out?"

"I have," I confirmed with a determined nod.

"So then... Do you want your second chance?"

I sighed and stomped my feet in the water. "Yes."

Suddenly, the earth began to shake. There were ripples in the water all around me, surrounding me into nothingness. I reached out to grab anything that could hold me steady, but found that there was nothing. I was just standing in unstable water. I looked around frantically, as if asking a question for some comfort.

All of a sudden, the vast blackness around me disappeared and I was standing on clear, blue and brilliant water surrounded by a bright blue sky with thick and curly white clouds all over. The ocean was still wide and all-viewing, but the scene was a lot more beautiful. I felt a warmth in my chest as the black was streaked out of the sky, revealing beauty without comparison.

Just like that, my feet gave way, and I found myself swallowed into the bright blue water. I yelled, but my voice was drowned out. Reaching around, all I felt was nothingness and water. Bubble came around me from my gasps for oxygen. Looking around the blue, I was looking into clear and empty water.

The darkness surrounded me and I felt my eye lids close. I heard that man..Uriel's... voice before I fell asleep.

"Good choice, Otonashi-kun."


End file.
